Dernie baffled by Ferrari wing row

Although eight rival teams went as far as lodging an advance notice of protest about Ferrari's wings at the Malaysian Grand Prix, before the FIA stepped in to defuse the situation, Williams' Dernie has said he does not understand why some were so pre-occupied by the situation.

"This story about Ferrari's front wing is absurd," he told this week's Autosprint. "You know what the aerodynamic advantage of the flap bending backwards is? Zero. I'm surprised there are reputable technical directors around convinced of the opposite."

Autosprint also quotes an FIA source as keen to play down the drama over the Ferrari front-wing - suggesting that the team were doing nothing that other outfits are not doing themselves.

"It's not irregular and it never was," said the source. "The flexing you could see on the onboard camera in Malaysia was exaggerated by the camera angle. In any case, if you could see the flap's mounting sliding and pulling down, then that's exactly what a wing is supposed to do in these conditions.

"The only difference between Ferrari and the other teams is that the 248 F1 uses this additional wing profile above the main one. But everyone talks about this solution and no one about Renault's rear wing, which works based on a completely different concept, as you can clearly see, but is just as interesting."

The issue of flexi-wings in F1 is due to be discussed at the next meeting of engineering think-tank the Technical Working Group, which is due to take place prior to the San Marino Grand Prix.